I kept something from you.

Don’t be mad.  I’m making up for it today.

A week ago last Friday I held a special event at the Brooks Atkinson Theatre sponsored by Spring Awakening and The Broadway League, just for the Leaders in the industry (Broadway League Members, Union Leadership, Non-Profit Executives, etc., etc.).  I wanted to invite you all . . . honestly I did.  But, well, there just wasn’t going to be room in the theater for everyone, so we kept this one private.

But don’t worry, I captured it all on video so I could share it with you today.  See?  I got your back.

What was the subject of the symposium I sponsored?  It was all about “How to Make Broadway More Accessible.”

What I loved about producing Spring Awakening was that it’s a great example of art that entertains and also inspires change.  Since Spring had such a profound effect on me and how I see and hear the world, I wanted to make sure that the rest of the industry got a little exposure to what I was fortunate enough to feel over the last six months.

So, I invited the thought leaders in the Broadway biz to listen to some of the thought leaders in the accessibility world . . . including Timothy Shriver, the Chairman of Special Olympics, who delivered our keynote, and a panel of experts including Victor Calise (Commissioner of Mayor’s Office for People with Disabilities), Lisa Goring (Executive Vice President of Programs and Services at Autism Speaks), David J. Kurs (Artistic Director of Deaf West Theatre) and Annie Leist (Special Projects Lead of Art Beyond Sight).  And then I got our industry’s accessibility advocate, Tory Bailey of TDF, to moderate the panel.

What followed was . . . well . . . pretty cool.  But I’m not going to give it away.  Because the videos are all here.  I hope they inspire you in the same way producing Spring inspired me . . . to not only think about how we can make Broadway more accessible . . . but to take some action, however small, to make that a reality.

Enjoy.

The videos are captioned, and transcripts for all of the above are available on each page.

(Got a comment? I love ‘em, so comment below! Email Subscribers, click here then scroll down to say what’s on your mind!)

– – – – –